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Biography:
My first awareness of pleasure came at about three or four. I used a bar of my mother’s Fairy soap to squash the bed bugs that hid behind the overlaps and cracks in the wallpaper – they popped – we were very poor.
At about seven I moved to live with my grandmother not far away in Muswell Hill and fell in love with Jeannie Coffin, an eight year old who lived in the flat upstairs. I lay in bed every night and sang to her. She never knew, but I learned the pain of love.
Then, for whatever reason, at eight years of age I spent some time in the National Childrens’ Home at Bramhope, near Leeds in Yorkshire. Lots of bread and jam, and a Christmas stocking, with new pennies, two oranges, a toy, and kindness.
A galley boy at 15, milkman, lumberjack, fence erector, greyhound trainer, gambler. I have been all of these and more – and now – why! I am the product of the past, as are all of us, and enjoy being what I am.
